Profile: Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS)

Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) was a participant or observer in the following events:

One of several unofficial logos of the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty organization. [Source: Kitty Liberation Front (.com)]The BBC broadcasts a graphic documentary detailing the mistreatment and abuse of animals by Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), a British research firm. Angered animal rights activists in Britain begin to pressure financial institutions associated with HLS to drop their support of the company as a means to force it to stop performing animal testing. The campaign grows into the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) organization, which models itself on the tactics and ideologies espoused by the Animal Liberation Front (ALF—see 1976) and Earth Liberation Front (ELF—see 1997), among others. SHAC quickly migrates across the Atlantic to the US and into Europe; its activists will claim responsibility for a number of bombings and acts of vandalism and harassment. [Anti-Defamation League, 2005]

Stephens Inc logo. [Source: RehabCare]Life Sciences Inc, a New Jersey-based holding company, buys Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), a British research company accused of mistreating and torturing animals as part of its research (see 1998). Stephens Inc, an Arkansas investment company, buys HLS’s bank loan and becomes its senior lender. The animal rights organization Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) launches a Web site called StephensKills that is designed to inform animal rights activists “of the cruelty that Stephens Inc invests in as shareholders” in HLS. Activists from Britain and America come to Little Rock, Arkansas, to protest against Stephens, in an action that results in 26 arrests. During the following months, Stephens employees are harassed and the company’s fax machines are jammed. Stephens finally sells its investment in HLS at a loss, while denying that SHAC’s pressure influenced its decision. [Anti-Defamation League, 2005] CEO Warren Stephens says the company had been “aware of the activists, but I don’t think we understood exactly what lengths they would go to.” [Southern Poverty Law Center, 9/2002]

Brian Cass. [Source: SuperVegan (.com)]David Blenkinsop and two other masked members of Britain’s Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC—see 1998) animal rights organization beat Brian Cass, the managing director of Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) with bats; a passerby who intercedes is sprayed in the face with tear gas. SHAC has for years accused HLS of abusing and torturing animals in its research efforts. American SHAC leader Kevin Kjonaas (see 1999 and After) says: “I don’t shed any tears for Brian Cass. He is responsible for 500 animals agonizing and dying every day at Huntingdon.” [Anti-Defamation League, 2005]

The American branch of the animal rights organization Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC—see 1998), flush with its recent success against Stephens Inc (see 2001-2002), begins targeting other US companies that do business with the British research firm Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS). The SHAC Web site explains, “Rather than protesting [HLS] itself, the SHAC campaign targets secondary targets—those companies that HLS needs so desperately to operate, but that don’t need HLS or the pressure that comes with doing business with them.” SHAC focuses on Marsh Inc, the firm that insures HLS. A February 2002 email to US SHAC members notes that British SHAC members have aggressively targeted Marsh, and reads in part, “Let’s show them that the US is no different and let Marsh know that… we are about to raise the premium on pain.” The email contains a list of March offices, phone and fax numbers, and email and home addresses of employees. The Web site provides maps to Marsh’s 60 American offices, along with a statement announcing that by “hitting” Marsh the group hopes to “attack HLS in a way they could never have predicted nor defend themselves against.” Soon thereafter, Marsh employees are harassed. One receives a letter saying: “You have been targeted for terrorist attack.… If you bail out now, you, your business, and your family will be spared great hassle and humility.” A Marsh executive’s home is doused with red paint. Another executive’s home is emblazoned with the slogans “Puppy Killer” and “We’ll Be Back.” In April 2002, SHAC activists escalate their activities, with a number of them gathering at a Marsh employee’s home in Boston, chanting, “[W]hat comes around goes around… burn his house to the ground,” while a message on the group’s Web site calls the employee, his wife, and two-year-old son “scum.” Twelve SHAC activists are arrested and charged with a variety of crimes, including extortion, stalking, threatening, and conspiracy (all charges will eventually be dropped). In July 2002, SHAC activists smoke-bomb two Seattle high-rises housing Marsh offices, forcing their evacuation. By the end of the year, Marsh drops HLS as a client, and SHAC proclaims victory; on its Web site, SHAC credits “those who smashed windows” as well as “those who held vocal protests outside Marsh offices and homes of executives.… No lawsuit, private investigator, or criminal prosecution prevented this victory. Until HLS is closed we will not apologize, we will not compromise, and we will not relent.” Later, other companies will also stop doing business with HLS after being pressured by SHAC. [Southern Poverty Law Center, 9/2002; Anti-Defamation League, 2005]

At 3 a.m., activists with the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC—see 1998 and 2002 and After) animal rights organization gather outside the Los Angeles home of a manager of a company that sells software to Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), a firm that for years has been accused by SHAC of abusing and torturing animals in its research efforts. The protesters yell through bullhorns, set off sirens, and leaflet the neighborhood. Afterwards, the SHAC Web site warns, “we’ll be back” and “we know where you live, we know where you work, and we’ll make your life hell until you pull out of HLS.” [Anti-Defamation League, 2005]

Activists for the animal rights organization Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC—see 1998 and 2002 and After) begin pressuring the biotechnology firm Chiron. Like other firms targeted by SHAC, Chiron does business with British research firm Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), long accused of abusing and torturing animals in its research practices. The pressure begins with SHAC activists protesting at the homes of Chiron employees. On June 11, 2003, the organization posts an anonymous message on its Web site, allegedly from a Chiron employee, telling SHAC members “how to bypass security at a Chiron office” and giving the names and Social Security numbers of Chiron staff. The message says to Chiron, “Send a fax to SHAC saying you will never use HLS again, and you can avoid paying for lawyers, security, and broken windows.” In August, activists calling themselves “Animal Liberation Brigade” and “Revolutionary Cells” claim responsibility for setting off two pipe bombs at the Chiron office in Emeryville, California. The bombs cause relatively minor damage, but a message on a SHAC Web site asks, “You might be able to protect your buildings, but can you protect the homes of every employee?” [Anti-Defamation League, 2005]

Shaklee logo. [Source: IAm4Kids (.com)]The “Animal Liberation Brigade” and “Revolutionary Cells,” two offshoots of the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC—see 1998 and 2002 and After) animal rights organization, bomb the offices of Shaklee Inc. in Pleasanton, California. No one is injured in the blast. SHAC has targeted Shaklee because its parent company, Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical Co., does business with Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), long accused of abusing and torturing animals in its research practices. (Apparently the fact that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), another animal rights organization, lists Shaklee as one of its “Caring Consumers” on its Web site does not affect the decision to bomb Shaklee’s offices.) The FBI offers a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the prime suspect in both the Shaklee and Chiron (see April - August 2003) bombings, Daniel Andreas San Diego of Sonoma, California. An anonymous email claiming responsibility for the bombing says that activists used a 10-pound ammonium nitrate bomb “strapped with nails.” Although the building sustains little damage, the email warns that “we will now be doubling the size of every device we make” and that “customers and their families are considered legitimate targets.… We gave all the customers the chance, the choice, to withdraw their business from HLS.” The email says: “Now you all will have to reap what you have sown.… You never know when your house, your car even, might go boom.… Or maybe it will be a shot in the dark.” [Anti-Defamation League, 2005]

Federal agents arrest seven people at their homes in relation to their activities as members of the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC—see 1998) animal rights organization. SHAC head Kevin Kjonaas (see 1999 and After) and two more SHAC officials, Lauren Gazzola and Jacob Conroy, are arrested in Pinole, California. Darius Fullner and John McGee are arrested in New Jersey. Andrew Stepanian, a member of both SHAC and the Animal Liberation Front (ALF—see 1976), is arrested in Long Island, New York. Joshua Harper, a self-described anarchist, is arrested in Seattle. These become known as the “SHAC 7,” and face charges of conspiring to intimidate and harass employees of Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) and trying to impede business through vandalism, stalking, computer hacking, email blitzes, telephone calls, and faxes. The indictment charges the seven with targeting other companies and shareholders who do business with HLS, whom SHAC has long accused of abusing and torturing animals, and says the seven posted personal information about company employees on its Web sites and encouraged followers to “operate outside the confines of the legal system” (see 2001-2002, 2002 and After, March 2003, April - August 2003, and September 2003). [Anti-Defamation League, 2005]

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